The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for dispensing drinking straws of various types. In addition, the invention relates to a drinking straw refill cartridge for use with the aforementioned method and apparatus.
The drinking straw has become a familiar staple item in households and fast food restaurants throughout the world. Originally made from coated paper, drinking straws are now normally made of thin, flexible plastic. The plastic straws are manufactured by extruding an endless tube and then cutting the tube to a convenient (e.g., 7 3/4 inch) length. The straws are then either loaded directly into boxes or first individually wrapped in paper sleeves before packing for shipment.
In some cases, straws have been modified, from this basic tubular structure, to permit special packaging arrangements. The U.S. Pat. No. 1,630,341 to Rosenthal discloses a flattened straw, cut to the usual 7 3/4 inch length, which is either rolled into a spiral form or folded back and forth a large number of times to reduce its size. The resulting spirally wound or folded straw is then encapsulated in a bottle cap or other small package and attached to a bottle, can or carton.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,944 also discloses a flattened drinking straw. During manufacture, a conventional round plastic straw is compacted and embossed between a pair of gears to facilitate its being folded a convenient number of times and fixed to a bottle, can or carton.
In the arrangements taught in both patents, an individual straw is dispensed with each bottle, can or carton. While this may be convenient for the consumer, it is an expensive solution to the straw dispensing problem.
More conventionally, in order to provide and dispense straws for use with soda cans or cups, for example, a plurality of tubular straws, cut to length, are supplied in a suitable container and dispensed, one by one, from the container by a suitable mechanical device. This method of dispensing straws is wasteful of space and requires frequent restocking of the dispensing device. Also, this arrangement does not permit straws of different length to be dispensed from a single device. Furthermore, since the volume occupied by a straw consists mostly of empty, unused space, this conventional method of dispensing straws creates inefficiencies in storage and shipping. Finally, this prior method of dispensing straws is less than fully sanitary since the straws are required to be handled by several persons before they are dispensed to the user.